A green valentines day

Every year we’re landfilling or incinerating 200 million non-recycled, mass produced, unromantic valentine cards. So this year we should all make more of an effort to keep our romance and the planet alive.

For the traditionalists among us, why not:

1. Make your own card

What makes the people you love tick? There’s a tonne of unwanted magazines out there itching to be made into innovative, funny and unique valentine cards. Get busy with your scissors and glue – who knows, you might get lucky!

2. Don't say it with pesticides

Roses are undoubtedly beautiful, but they are also undeniably predictable. What’s more they are likely to be covered in pesticides, picked by badly paid women and children, and flown in from Kenya. Why not buy something fresh, local, organic and beautiful from your local farmers market? http://www.farmersmarkets.net/

3. Love me, love my worms

Raise a glass of organic champagne to another year of love, lust and those hard working worms beneath rich, organic French soil. http://www.vintageroots.co.uk/

4. Plastic bag jewellery

Why not keep plastic bags from the stomachs of whales, dolphins and seals by buying a vibrantly coloured cuff bangle from Ecotopia. Each bracelet is one of a kind and crafted from recycled plastics. http://ecotopia.co.uk/

For those of you who would prefer to stray from the well-beaten path to your loved one’s heart, what about:

5. Plant a tree in Scotland

Plant a tree and add to the burgeoning, beautiful and diverse Caledonian Forest, which will eventually become home again to the missing species of wildlife hounded from their homes by deforestation. http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/

6. Make your own gift

The Craftster forums are jam-packed with ideas, instructions and help for homemade goodies from cookies and clothing to handmade photo albums and jewellery, whether you’re a needlepoint novice or a seasoned seamstress.

7. Home-made cosmetics

A refreshing home-made apple face mask. Check out this website for many more recipes and ideas, and present your concoction in an old jam jar with a hand-written label.http://www.kitchencraftsnmore.net/

This article first appeared in the Ecologist December 2008

Mix up apple, honey and sage and what do you

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